Top 20 albums: editorial comment

Regular readers will recall that the recent Dylan Daily poll to ascertain album preferences of the readership resulted in the ranked Top 20 list, below.

I promised editorial comment, so here goes:

* The survey was big enough to provide an accurate fan consensus, though no single fan will rank the albums in the same order,

* the dominance of the mid-1960s trio comes as no surprise at all,

* I was mildly surprised that BOTT was “only” second,

* "Love And Theft" seems artificially high; I’d bet it’ll drop over time; I think Modern Times will overtake it,

* surprisingly low rankings: Another Side Of Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A'-Changin’, and Planet Waves,

* surprising no-show: Down In The Groove (weak joke inserted to check you’re still awake).


The Top 20 Dylan Albums

1. Blonde On Blonde (1966) 100 (index)
2. Blood On the Tracks (1975) 84
3. Highway 61 Revisited (1965) 74
4. Bringing It All Back Home (‘65) 43
5. Time Out Of Mind (1997) 21

6. "Love And Theft" (2001) 18
7. The Freewheelin’ (1963) 17
8. John Wesley Harding (1967) 14
9. Desire (1976) 12
10. Another Side Of Bob Dylan (‘64) 11

11. Oh Mercy (1989) 10
12. Modern Times (2006)
13. Street-Legal (1978)
14. Slow Train Coming (1979)
15. Infidels (1983)

16. Live 1966 (1998) 2
17. No Direction Home (2005)
18. Planet Waves (1974)
19. New Morning (1970)
20. The Times They Are A'-Changin’(‘64) 1

(The index figure at the end of each line has been calculated to indicate popularity relative to Blonde On Blonde.)





Gerry Smith